Knesset Bill Could Ban Too-Skinny Models
Israel can point to one indisputably successful international export, which so far, no one has shown any interest in boycotting: drop-dead gorgeous models.
Sports Illustrated bikini-wearing, DiCaprio-dating Bar Rafaeli may be the current the leader of the pack, but she is part of a long and glorious tradition, following in the high-heeled footsteps of those who went before her like Shiraz Tal and Michaela Bercu, who conquered and occupied the covers of fashion magazines and billboard before her.
The unrealistically slender proportions of fashion models often further reduced by photographic touch-ups, the international culture of fashion and music videos and the simple fact that Israel is a coastal bathing-suit wearing culture means that at any given moment, most of the female population here is on a diet. Like the rest of the world, body-consciousness develops at an alarmingly young age and eating disorders are a growing problem among Israeli youth, just as they are worldwide.
A new bill in the Knesset would ban the use of underweight models — those whose Body Mass Index falls under 18.5 — from appearing in advertisements, and require full disclosure on digital enhancement. Called the “Photoshop Law” it would require putting a notice on any advertisement in which models were enhanced, altered or reduced. The bill’s co-sponsors, MK Rachel Adatto of Kadima and Danny Danon of Likud, wrote in the bill that:
The prevalence of eating disorders, including anorexia, is on the rise in Israeli society in recent years, especially among teenage girls. Research proves that one of the reasons for eating disorder among young women is the influence of the media and advertising which presents especially skinny women as standards to emulate, and by this affect youths’ standards. The fashion industry and especially the advertising industry have created a distorted image of the ideal woman when many of the models appearing in advertisements are in a state of undernourishment. The Israeli law follows in the footsteps of the Madrid City Council which, in 2006, rocked the fashion world when it banned underweight models from Madrid Fashion Week. A similar measure was being negotiated between Milan Fashion Week organizers and the Italian government, but fell flat. Public pressure on governments to regulate the size of models has failed thus far in poweful fashion capitals of the world including Milan, New York and Paris.
So if Israeli fashion business flexes less muscle and the bill actually passes the Knesset and becomes law, it will be a ground-breaking move for women everywhere — especially those who actually possess hips and thighs.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
